ACTION – school kids in seats, the elderly left to stand

I caught the No 5 from Griffith shops to town this afternoon and a little surpriseded to see 35 odd high school students from St Edmunds and St Clares with their arses parked in their seats while two rather elderly passengers were forced to stand for the best part of 30 mins.

In contrast, I was offered a seat by a Narrabundah College student a few weeks ago, on the same route – my mates have been giving me heaps ever since (I’m 47 and had, prior to that occasion, still considered myself one to offer-up a seat rather than the other way around).

Guess that’s what a (relatively) expensive catholic education instills these days. Perhaps the schools themselves can cast a little light on the subject!

Eddies says it is:

“very proud of our rich traditions and sense of community that have been built upon by successive generations of students, staff and parents.”

St Clares on the other hand is rather chuffed to describe itself thus:

“a Catholic school for girls located in the south Canberra suburb of Griffith. We are a Year 7 to 12 school where students are motivated and encouraged to develop to their full potential within the context of the Catholic Tradition.”

Whatever the schools claim to be doing; it isn’t working – well at least in the case of the two old dears on the No5.

..in which “Emlyn Ward” has claimed that public school kids are all scum & catholic school kids are the very picture of good community friendly behaviour. Of course Emlyn must be ignorant of examples such as this one of the opposite, or indeed of when Eddies suspended the entire student body for bad behaviour. Can’t be true though…’cause according to Emlyn, that could only ever happen at those godless public schools.

> Its the parents fault they should be dropping and picking up the kids. What self respecting private school kid catches a bus anyway?

Judging by the sheer number of them I see at bus stops on my way to work & also by the masses of buses at the catholic school near my office every morning/arvo…I’d say most self respecting private school kids catch the bus. Perhaps their parents can’t afford BMW’s (with the massive schools fees to pay), so the kids don’t want to be seen with them.

I am finding that this is the norm lately. Radford kids are the same on the 300 series buses. They do not give up their seats to the elder people even though they get off earlier than everyone else at College Street. *sigh* They are usually too busy listening to their Ipods.

> Don’t forget, our Eddies boys are in training as our future footballers. Not sure about the girls though.

Yes, that’s Rugby though (as opposed to rugby LEAGUE). Rugby is generally considered more of an educated gentlemans game.

Not when Eddies plays it.

I can easily see the above happening on a bus with any school students. Personally, I’m always unsure about offering my seat to a woman/older person. There’s something so potentially insulting about it. Fortunately it hasn’t come up in a very long time.

It’s got nothing to do with schooling and everything to do with parenting. If I thought either of my kids (one is at Narrabundah College and one is at St Clare’s) left an adult standing while they sat they’d cop it. Simple.

With an increasingly aging population vying for fewer available seats during peak hour, I think that the solution is obvious: soilent green.

bahaha! I’m with you there.
Before I say this I need to say the following disclaimer:
When I do catch buses I do offer older people my seat, although it is rarely necessary.

However, while I can see the point of this for frail elderly people, I don’t feel so oblidging to just generally old people. Just because your hair goes grey or white doesn’t make me want to give up my seat for you. (again I’m not talking about little old grannies here!)
I hate to say it, but part of me thinks that they can stand just like the rest of us. I am pretty sure this stems from being brought where old people are always right, just cos they are old, and we shouldn’t challenge them because we need to “respect our elders” blah blah blah. I’m so sick of hearing old people bitch an moan, that I have become age-ist.
all right. its out. I am age-ist.

Times must have changed. My older brother played for Eddies First 15 many years ago (& from there made the Australian Schoolboys team), he only went there for year 12..specifically to play Rugby. Appropriate behaviour at all times was very high on the agenda for the team back then.

+1 to misspris. Kids spend only about 20% of their life at school therefore much has to do with the parents who should be paying more attention and not relying on the school to teach their children everything.

I don’t know about Canberra, not having used the buses, but in Brisbane it was a condition of a student fare on public transport that you stand and offer your seat to any adult who was without one. It was also a separately enunciated rule in the school handbook, and one enforced by the prefects and the large number of old girls and parents who caught the train (in my experience as both a student and an old girl!).

Times must have changed. My older brother played for Eddies First 15 many years ago (& from there made the Australian Schoolboys team), he only went there for year 12..specifically to play Rugby. Appropriate behaviour at all times was very high on the agenda for the team back then.

It was more a quip than an actual fact based statement. I was more referring to their unstoppable dominance of all things. I choose to bask in this reflected glory by virtue that I went to that school.

My children attended both Public and Catholic Schools and it has nothing to do with the schools. It has to do with the parents and how the child is raised..
Also can depend on the ‘aged’ person too.
I told my son (11yo) to offer his seat to an elderly lady who had gotten onto a bus from Woden. She smiled, said “thankyou” then sat her shopping bags on the seat and remained standing. Then when another lady got off the bus, the elderly lady sat there and left her shopping on the seat with my son still standing. (I wonder if she went to a Catholic School or not?)

YYY, your comment reminds me of my Dad getting yelled at by another driver and being called a ‘silly old man’ – he was more upset about being considered old than being yelled at. Now that I’m getting older, I understand his pain!

Back on topic, in Victoria it was (still is?) a rule for any concession card holder to give up their seat to any full fare paying passenger, which was usually just interpreted as kids giving up seats to adults.

However, if you were ‘smart’ you would just totally engross yourself in your newspaper/book or turn your iPod up to 11 and you could enjoy your seat without guilt regardless of how many elderly persons or pregnant women were standing near you!

As a Marist student in the 80′s who had to catch 8 buses a day to get to and from school (later reduced to 6 bussed a day when the express 333 came in) I can state that we were always required to stand up if an adult (not just an elderly person) had no seat.

Bus drivers would enforce this at their leisure, which in my experience they almost always did.

As for parent vs teachers educating our kids in manners etc. they both should be involved. Parent must take the lead which then must be reinforced at the school. My kids arebeing taught their manners on a daily basis.

I see the curent lack of considertion shown by the students mentioned in the OP as being just another step down on ladder of general regard for others.

But then again, when teenage girls feel required to swear and scream on buses as I frequently see, and often in front of clearly offended elderly passengers, and the driver does nothing, why shoulod we expect them to just offer up a seat?

What a bunch of rude little scumbags, and shame on their parents AND schools for not teaching them the basic manners. They can paint up those schools as being “private and exclusive” all they like, but I reckon they’re still the povo try-hard schools for football ruffians and catholic wives and mothers in training that they always were.

Although a year back I offered my seat on a bus to an older lady, and she pretty much laughed at me. Well i don’t feel middle aged! I’m sure she looked older than me. humf.

It really has nothing to do with Catholic/non-catholic, private/public. It’s simply lack of courtesy and respect. And the parents should be teaching these values, not the schools who already have enough to do teaching academic subjects without teaching the things that parents should be instilling in their little darlings. Ths schools are a great target for this type of criticism simply because we can identify where the kids comes from, at least for about 7 hours of the day.

When the aging-population crunch comes, and baby boomers on public transport really outnumber the students, there will be blood. Walking frames with concealed guns, canes with hidden stilettos, false teeth with cyanide gas capsules, law suits, enraged letters to the editor of the CT. The coming battle for bus seats will become the stuff of legend…General Val Jeffries will lead us to freedom…